Steve Biko

Bantu Stephen "Steve" Biko (18 December 1946-12 September 1977) was a South African socialist revolutionary and anti-apartheid activist. Biko was arrested several times for his activism, and he was tortured to death in prison in 1977.

Biography
Bantu Stephen Biko was born in Ginsberg, South Africa on 18 December 1946. He won a scholarship to study medicine at the University of Natal in 1965 and became involved in the multiracial National Union of South African Students (NUSAS). He came to believe that effective resistance to the apartheid regime could only come under black leadership in black organizations, and he founded the Black South African Students Organization in 1969, becoming its first president. He was influenced by the US Black Consciousness movement, and he developed the theory that blacks had to become conscious of their own identity as a precondition for political emancipation. Biko employed radical and, at times, violent, rhetoric, but his programme was relatively liberal. He derived most of his following from educated circles of mixed-race "coloreds" and blacks, but he failed to extend his support to the black townships. He left university in 1972 and was confined to King William's Town by the South African government in 1973. He was arrested several times from 1976 to 1977, and he was arrested on 19 August 1977 for moving outside his restricted area. Biko died from a brain hemorrhage and other injuries caused by police brutality while in police custody.